The rumored deal would have landed the Blue Jackets seven draft picks over the course of the weekend in exchange to move down from the No. 2 to the No. 4 spot. Here's an excerpt from the article:

How highly did the Blue Jackets value defenseman Ryan Murray before taking him with the No. 2 overall pick in Friday's first round of the NHL Draft? Enough to turn down an eye-opening offer from the New York Islanders, who, according to numerous NHL sources, offered all of their picks -- one in each round -- for the right to move up from No. 4 to No. 2 for Murray.

Who is crazier here, Howson for turning down the offer, or Snow for offering an entire draft's worth of picks to move up just two spots?

Howson has come under a lot of heat for the way he's handled the Rick Nash trade saga, refusing to negate from his astronomical demands for his captain. Now, we learn seven additional draft picks weren't enough for the organization to move down and not select Ryan Murray.

It really makes you wonder what the ultimate plan is in Ohio—or if there even is a plan in place.

A team looking to "rebuild" its team and its image has had multiple chances to do so over the course of several months and failed to pull the trigger. It's one thing to want the best for your organization and wait for the right deals, but it's another thing to be either excessively greedy or flat-out incompetent.

It begs the question of whether Howson is being set up to fail, or if he's got the organization drinking his Kool-Aid.

Citing quality over quantity, you can argue having an abundance of draft picks isn't the best thing. How about taking some of those picks and packaging them in separate deals, perhaps for more assets in the short term?

There were multiple scenarios that could have come after, but we'll never know.

The ones who get hurt the most are the Columbus Blue Jackets fans. Loyal since the team's inception, lovers of the Union Blue are now in an extreme state of flux, not knowing when their team will ever be in the proper hands to be successful.